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Barren Wastes Revisited
Koriolis Region - Cybertron The vent-choking gray dust from the Koriolis Desert dissipates near the outskirts of the vast, thunderous Sonic Canyons. Contents: Imager Obvious Exits: North leads to Tarn Region. East leads to Rust Seas Region. South leads to Mercury Seas Region. West leads to Mithril Sea Region. Up , Koriolis Desert , Sonic Canyons Punch has arrived. Arriving at the Barren Wastes, which still totally exist despite Cybertron's reformatting, Imager sluggishly leads the Autobot contingent at the edge of the Wastes itself, she transforms back into her root form and gestures forwards. "Everything gets reformatted and fixed up on the ole planet...and then there's this mess." Endless desert and dearth sprawl before the team, with only occasional metal shard outcroppings or other landmarks. The wind manages a high gust, carrying rust from the great sea across the landscape... Doublecross has arrived. Because of the terrain and the conditions, Arcee has also reverted back to root mode after driving for some time on this long journey. Now, she observes the edge of the Wastes, using her visor to focus on the more distant objects on the horizon. "Well, let's get to it, then. Looks like the Insecticons taking up residence inside of Metroplex will need to wait, at least for now." The doublespy is traveling along in convoy with the others. Only minor point of note is that he's doing so from the air. Although the wind is high Punch is keeping pace with relative ease, compensating with twists and twirls. He is not showing off with stunt flying. It's all necessary. That's the official story that he's sticking to. Landing nearby the others Punch says, "High there." Smiling brightly Punch takes a deck of cigs from his arm compartment lights one and puffs it into life. "Okay. It's there. Now we just need to define what it is, does or is going to do. Simple enough." Double-Headed Dragon is also flying in his double-headed dragon mode. He lands lightly on his feet, regarding the other Autobots with a double-headed nod. In truth, the supplies merchant has only come along to see if there's anything worth salvaging he later trade or use. That and there are very few Autobots anymore, and the company is nice. Imager points out a rock off to the side, "That there was where Mute sprung out at me. Haven't seen him since." She checks herself, banging against her frame. "Oh mech, I hope he's not stuck in my tape player." She bangs against herself in a tizzy, just in case. The moment passes, and for a while, the Bots travel further into the desert wasteland. Even to the untrained eye, the blaster marks and missile fragments seem fresh. At one point, the group passes through a large scorched blast that most likely came from something siege class. There was a battle here. A large one. Most interesting of all was where the holes are dug into Cybertron's surface, "Hmmm, they're gone. There were all sorts of these jagged things stuck in the ground around here." She peeks into one of the holes, "Wonder where they went?" As the group travels further into the Barren Wastes, Arcee scans and makes notes in her datapad whenever she can. She smiles slightly at Punch. "At least you have the advantage of being able to see anything particularly weird before Imager and I can." Doublecross' appearence surprises her. "Wow, I didn't realize you made it back. You've got the flying advantage as well, so...use that flight for best results out here. We're just trying to solve this mystery." Later, when Imager mentions that the jagged items are missing, Arcee stares at her. "...." Then, she looks back at the datapad, bringing up the images last obtained at this site. "Just...how?? How did we not see things moving around out here?? That's what I want to know." Raising his hand Punch's cig is gone just faster than his mortar is in his hand. For the good it does he activates the light on it and shines the light in the exit wounds to the planet's surface. "Main structure. Were the things that made these smaller holes attached to it?" Punch asks Imager quickly and clearly. Still smiling brightly Punch nods to Arcee and says, "You know me. Anything to help." Punch is looking one way but checking several others with his peripheral vision. Already he doesn't like this. He doesn't know enough and it's the details that you don't know that'll kill you when you're a spy. Imager manages another shrug, "Beats me on all accounts. I'm not really Prowl or anything, though I HAVE been told I am just as badaft as him." She turns towards the large hole and projects one of her holograms over the hole to replicate what she and Smokes had seen. There before you is a strange thin but wide object. Pale reddish in color, it tapers to the ground, and the top of it looks flat, as if it may've been a spine to something much greater. Double-Headed Dragon double-nods to Arcee, "Of courssse," the right head hisses as the other head looks up and around, "Pay attention!" the left head snaps at the right, and Doublecross growls at himself viciously. The strange Monsterbot takes to the air for a better vantage point, and to scout for supplies. He's no armory expert, but there's something suspicious about the debris scattered on this barren battlefield, the left head hisses downward, "I don't believe it..." "Neither do I!" Doublecross says downward to his fellows, "Autobotsss, I think the larger, heavier ordinancccce here wasssn't meant to fight Cybertroniansss, but posssibly sssomething organic." Imager says, "Uh, organic?" Insecticons chitter, "Hivemind?" Knock-Knock says "No...this is our home. not Cybertron." Arcee frowns, staring at Imager's hologram carefully, then scanning the vacant place where the thing actually once was. She's quiet for a moment as she checks the readings, then she considers Doublecross and his (their??) observation. "Hm..." She looks from Imager over to Punch. "To add credence to that idea...the readings suggest that organic matter died and decomposed here very recently. So maybe those things you saw were...living. And were subsequently killed." Doublecross says, "Yesss... If you look closssely, you can see the difference between our ssstandard ordinance and thessse." Imager says, "mkay, so whats that mean then?" Imager says, "so a lot, and I mean a LOT of us fought some organic thing?" Doublecross says, "Don't asssk me... Or me. I'm just a sssuppliesss procurer, and ssso am I." Punch says, "Again. This channel is unsecure. Do, for the moment, use your tightband personal radios so the universe at large isn't aware of the details of an active investigation. Please? Pretty please with extra charge on top?" Imager says, "you're in Operations too? I uh...didn't know" Imager says, "oh, right, right." Double-Headed Dragon spots something of interest and quickly lands. He transforms to robot mode to give it a closer inspection with a mode that actually has hands. It's just a weapon containing some ammo. Satisfied, he shunts it into subspace and turns back to the group, but not before grabbing some ammunition scattered on the ground and subspace pocketing that, too. It isn't much, but it makes Doublecross feel good to collect up at least something. Double-Headed Dragon transforms into his Doublecross mode. Punch reaches into his outstretched arm and pulls out a pack of cigs. Well, what looks like one in any case. A forensic kit's inside really. Taking some evidence bags out of the kit along with a sterile sampling tool Punch gathers some scans and samples from some of the smaller holes. His weapon trained on the sites he examines each time. Standing and looking to the largest hole Punch sights it with his mortar. Thinking for a moment Punch makes a decision that's enough to dull his smile for a moment. Spinning the mortar round so he's holding it by the barrel Punch says to Arcee, "I'm getting a closer look in there. Cover me." Punch waits patiently to see if he gets the go-ahead for examining closer. After all, he's not ranking officer. Imager looks at the other two, and most importantly a very knowing look towards Arcee, as if Imager was very worried about Punch for some very important reason. Still she can't use her comm channel, and maybe not everyone here knows what is what. She stomps over towards one of the holes. Light is projected into the tunnel below as she observes from her distance. "Pretty small, I know I can't fit down there. She looks over at Doublecross, "Them...him too. But at least you've got flight to get back up here I guess. Drop looks pretty far." Doublecross heads over to the hole and looks down it. Indeed, it's far. In an aside to Punch, the right head says, "If you run into anything down there, I can fly down and get you out," and the left head then hisses, "And Punch? If you find anything down there that might be of ussse to me, be sssure to bring it up with you." Arcee sighs, taking ahold of the mortar round. If they didn't need answers so badly, she might be inclined to argue, but this investigation is their best hope. "Alright. Let's do this." She nods to Doublecross, then watches Imager peer into the aperature for a moment...then she gives Punch a worried look as if very much hoping he knows what he's doing. "Relax..." Punch says confidently to Arcee, "I'll be back before you know it. Just shoot anything chasing me is all." Punch adds jokingly. He then walks over to the holes edge and takes a step back. Covert operations don't always mean everything's a secret, that nothing should ever be seen. Sometimes when faced with an overwhelming force or situation it's best to approach and attack the problem with all the fanfare you've got. No secret which school Punch came from. A significant flare from his flight systems launch him skyward and, moving mid air Punch lines himself for a foot first dive into the unknown. Silence follows. There's a few flickers of light that come from the depths. More silence. A grunt of some effort can be heard then Punch flies outcarrying a... something. Landing near Arcee Punch says, "See? Nothing to worry about. Sight seeing. I took a few pictures and got this from the gift shop." Punch holds up an object the size of a cybertronian basketball. It's odd to say the least. Arcee waits tensely as Punch disappears into the hole. When he emerges, she backs up a step, then begins scanning the orb for any signs of organic life. "I'm so glad we didn't come out of this long journey empty-handed. Nice work, Punch..." Punch holds the thing up for ease of scanning and says, "You should see the holiday snaps to go with the souvenir. Looks like this was the business end of some kind of bio weapon. The round itself I'd guess from its placement." Punch waits for a moment whilst the thing is being scanned. "... There was something else. Just tell me when you're done here. So I can explain." After taking readings of the spherical object, Arcee turns her full attention to Punch. "Okay, let's hear it." Punch puts the whatever it is down. He then takes a deep vent in and out. "I could be wrong here and it'll take looking over the reference pictures I got in there but I think I seen a connection." Punch pauses, long enough to slight his cig back from subspace and take a draw, before saying, "The architecture of the other biomass down there reminded me of something. Namely the afterimage that was burned into your visor." Punch pauses for a read on how the news is taken. As you never know. "Oh. Oh, /that/ thing," Arcee exclaims, suddenly putting the pieces together. "So this is sort of...fossilized proof that the visor-image monster actually existed at some point. Existed right in the spot where we're standing, in fact. And they may be responsible for moving the structures that were stored here previously." She stares at Punch for a moment, then glances around. "Or maybe there actually some of them still out here, somewhere." Punch says, "Possible. If the samples that I've taken and that thing are anything to go by the weaponised components slowly decay away to nothing." Punch tilts his head ever so slightly to the side. He doubts anyone's in the area but, just in case, he's watching so nothing can sneak up from behind Arcee. Having not taken his mortar back he can still draw and fire his photon cannon if needs be. "If there are weapons it means someone's got to be using them." Taking another draw from his cig Punch says, "Maybe, for now, we should get out of here and speculate elsewhere. Just to be on the safer side." Arcee is very brave, perhaps almost as brave as Punch is. But she has to agree with him; they have what they came here for, and staying later is just...creepy, at this point. "Agreed. Thanks for helping out with this, it isn't something that can be done alone, you know? Especially when there's still such a big question about what we're dealing with."